Lyme disease is an infection spread by ticks, with symptoms including a rash and flu-like symptoms. Learn about the best way to prevent Lyme disease in this health video.
Wear bug repellant
Remove ticks immediately with tweezers
Check for ticks after being outside
Mary Hondros graduated from University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. She currently works as a nutritionist for New Hanover County Schools in North Carolina. Her main focus is to teach children to improve nutritional habits.
MARY HONDROS: Okay. I am going to talk a little bit about lyme disease. Lyme disease is an infection spread by ticks that transmit a bacteria that they have in their bodies into your bloodstream. The good thing about this is that they do not transmit that bacteria until they have been attached for at least 36 hours. So, if you a have a tick on you and you remove it immediately your chances of contracting lyme disease are little to none. The general symptoms of lyme disease include a rash that forms around where the bite was, and it kind of looks like a bull's eye, they call it the bull's eye rash. And also general flu-like symptoms like being tired and fatigued and having achy bones also signal lyme disease. Some things you can do to prevent even getting infected in the first place are, if you are outside in the wooded or grassy area you need to wear as much clothing as you can stand. So, a long sleeve shirts, long pants, high socks, all those will prevent ticks from attaching to you in the first place. Also, you need to wear some sort of insect repellant with DEET in it. This helps repel ticks as well. Thirdly, just make sure that when you can in from a wooded area or being outside that you check your entire body and that you have somebody you trust to check the areas that you cannot see. And lastly, just remember that if you do find a ticks some more on your body, remove it immediately with a pair of fine point tweezers. You can clip on the body and pull straight out so that the entire tick comes off. And so, again, to reiterate four points on preventing lyme disease infection: Make sure that you wear insect repellant. Check your body for ticks after being outside. Make sure that you wear clothing that covers as much of your body as possible. And lastly, if you find a tick, remove it immediately with a pair of fine point tweezers. And those are some tips on preventing lyme disease.
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